The Church in Kiribati
In the 1970s, I-Kiribati students joined the Church while studying at Liahona High School in Tonga. Later, these students returned to Kiribati as missionaries and helped establish the Church there. The Church has continued to grow on the islands since Kiribati gained its independence in 1979 and is now recognized as a positive influence in the country.
History of the Church in Kiribati
In 1975 students from Kiribati who had been baptized while attending the Church-owned Liahona High School in Tonga returned to their home country as missionaries. The early converts of these young I-Kiribati missionaries established the first branch of the Church and held meetings on the campus of their old school, the Auriaria Kokoi Ataria School on the island of Tarawa. Just two years later, the Church converted that school into the Moroni Community School (later Moroni High School).
As students of Moroni High School embraced the restored gospel and spread its message across the islands, the school gained a reputation as “a city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14) and a place of study and faith. Despite early resistance from government and community leaders, the school and the Church have grown much in the years since Kiribati gained its independence in 1979. Now the Church is recognized as a positive influence in the social, educational, and cultural development of the country and is the third-largest Christian denomination in the republic.
Stories of Faith
More Areas of the Church
Notes
- Britsch, R. Lanier. “Founding the LDS Church in Melanesia and Micronesia.” In Voyages of Faith: Explorations in Mormon Pacific History, edited by Grant Underwood. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2000, 267–83.
- Britsch, R. Lanier. Unto the Islands of the Sea: A History of the Latter-day Saints in the Pacific. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986, 515–21.
- Findlay, Joyce. “Kiribati Flowers in the Pacific,” Ensign, Dec. 1997, 68–70.
- Jacob, W. James. “A Beacon to the Isles of the Sea: How Education Brought Gospel Light to Kiribati.” In Pioneers in the Pacific: Memory, History, and Cultural Identity among the Latter-day Saints, edited by Grant Underwood. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, 2005, 277–91.
- Johnson, R. Val. “The Seabirds of Kiribati,” Ensign, Dec. 2000, 40–44.
- Wade, Alton L. “And Ye Shall Be Witnesses unto Me.” Brigham Young University devotional, Apr. 4, 2000, speeches.byu.edu.
- Wright, Dennis A., and Megan E. Warner. “Louis and Barbara Durfee’s CES Mission to Kiribati.” In Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: The Pacific Isles, edited by Reid L. Neilson, Steven C. Harper, Craig K. Manscill, and Mary Jane Woodger. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, 2008, 107–26.